Well, almost a week has passed without a blog entry – my excuse is I’ve been studying too hard to have time to update this.  Not quite true as we had Wednesday off lectures as it was forecast a Cat 5 (the highest category) Typhoon would hit Shanghai around midday with winds of over 140 mph.  Luckily, it didn’t.  In a way it was a let down but seriously we were very lucky that by the time it hit 240 miles south of Shanghai it wasn’t even classed as a Typhoon but a tropical depression.  The day off was of great use to me, having pages of vocab to learn and characters to try and draw/write.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful until Friday, when we headed out for Caitlin’s birthday.  It was really good to meet other people of roughly the same age. They are all studying at the international school here, so there was a mix of Americans, Dutch, Flemish, Australians … half the UN was represented in fact.

After the meal we headed to our now regular haunt O’Malley’s for the France v Ireland match.  This was a great game made even better by the amazing atmosphere in the beer garden.  It was a 3 am kick off for us and the beer garden was packed (around 900 people) all watching the game under the stars.  I’ve realised the advantage to studying “la Marseillaise” at school is that it means I can earn a few drinks watching the game in the middle of the French crowd!

Saturday, was obviously a long lie and I cannot write about the morning as I did not see any of it.  The afternoon, I studied as I have 108 radicals (parts of Chinese characters) to learn how to write and what they mean for next week.  The evening meal was eaten at a nearby Italian restaurant that does amazing Spaghetti Bolognaise for 9 rmb (40 p) .

This morning I headed out to Xujahui Cathedral (the largest in Shanghai), which was really interesting – it has been used in various films including several by Steven Spielberg.  After this I headed to the Bund, a famous area in Shanghai, which was a bit of a disappointment – it was full of tourists and was not as nice as it’s reputation suggests.  I then caught the metro home and here I am updating you all.  Later, I’m heading to O’Malleys (again? I hear you ask) but this time its to drum up some support with my bagpipes before we get gubbed by New Zealand!!!

I’m having problems with the internet at the moment so I cannot upload photos onto the other site and I cannot access Bebo to reply to comments – sorry!  I can still access my emails and Facebook so it’s not too bad!  Ciao for now.  David